Lightning diverter strips (such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,416,027 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,506,311) include a series of electrically conductive elements mounted along the length of a supporting fibre-glass strip.
Such devices are widely used, e.g. on aircraft radomes and the like, and divert electrical energy from lightning strikes, lightning attachments and the like, over an aircraft surface to a ground. This occurs due to the ionisation of air between the electrically conductive elements of the lightning diverter strip which creates a low impedance path along the length of the lightning diverter strip along which the electrical energy of the lightning strike travels.
In a separate field, planform alignment is used in the design of many stealth, or “Low Observable” (LO) (i.e. low detectability by radar systems), aircraft. Planform alignment involves using a small number of surface orientations in the shape of the structure of the aircraft. For example, leading and trailing edges of the aircraft wing, tail surfaces of the aircraft, and surface of other aircraft structures (such as intakes and apertures) may be set to be the same angle. This is done to so that the aircraft reflects radar signals that are detectable only in very specific directions relative to the aircraft, rather than returning a radar signal that may be detected at many different angles.